CompTIA Channel Development Advisory Council:
360insights is excited to share that Heather K. Margolis, Senior Vice President of Marketing, has recently been selected to join the Channel Development Advisory Council for Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).
Heather is an entrepreneur and recognized expert in channel strategy, channel marketing and ecosystem orchestration. In her role at 360insights, her passion is for developing B2B and B2B2C marketing strategies that enable organizations to drive sales through channel partners and she brings this invaluable domain expertise and perspective to her post on the CompTIA board.
“We’re pleased to welcome Heather K. Margolis to our Channel Development Advisory Council,” said Deborah Schildkraut, CompTIA’s vice president for global community engagement. “Her breadth of knowledge and the respect she has from the vendor and partner communities adds to the council’s collective expertise as they champion and support the opportunities for growth and innovation that are present in today’s tech marketplace.”
The Channel Development Advisory Council is made up of leaders and influencers representing hardware manufacturers, software publishers, services organizations, distributors, telecommunications companies and technology solution providers. The collective experience and knowledge of its members serves to provide counsel and insight in all matters relating to the indirect technology market. In addition, members help to develop educational programs, business tools and other resources to promote the business value the technology channel brings to the tech industry.
“The last 3 years has rapidly transformed business needs and landscape of the IT Channel,” said Heather. “Faced with labor shortages, a recession, a massive shift in the make-up of partnerships, and inflation I am eager to collaborate with fellow board members, to discuss how we can enable partnerships of many shapes and sizes tackle these challenges.”
Takeaways from CompTIA ChannelCon 2022:
Coinciding with her appointment on the Channel Development Advisory Council (CDAC), Heather was joined by Akilah Murrell at CompTIA’s annual event, ChannelCon 2022 (Aug 2-4), to offer top advice for how vendors can support partnerships during their lively session, “Motivate and Enable Partners to Sell Your Solutions in Economic Uncertainty.” During their interactive session, Heather and Akilah highlighted 5 ways vendors can better enable partners, including:
Know and Assess Your Partners:
Right now is a great time to do a deep dive on who your partners are and what their current pain points are. Your partners ability to sell has been flipped upside down over the past few years, and assessments like these can help you engage your partners with solutions that will work for what they need in this moment.
Educate Your Partners
After you’ve assessed your partner landscape, align your findings as the most cost-effective and impactful solutions to their vision. Per ChannelNomics a convergence of “megatrends” we find ourselves in an uncertain economic climate which is reshaping the technology world. The pandemic, demographic shifts, customer expectations, sustainability, everything-as-a-service, and more have led to a huge impact on channel marketing, including:
- Technology redefining sourcing, partner’s roles, and value proposition.
- New types of partners entering the channel.
- Business needs evolving in the rebalanced economy.
- Sales and experience taking precedence over price.
Engage Your Partners with MDF:
Enabling your partners to spend MDF wisely is the best investment for their business. “If a company wants to set up a digital marketing campaign that pushes customers to their website, but their website is hard to navigate, that’s not helpful to anyone,” said Margolis. Instead, consider re-examining where the company is in its journey right now and see where the funds would have the biggest impact. “If you can give [MDF] to partners who show initiative, who will use it in the right way, that’s the goal. You want the partners who have a clear idea of how to spend money smartly for the business.”
Incentivize the Right Things:
Support partners by incentivizing their teams to do the things that will actual make a difference like engaging on social, sending sanctioned materials, and holding webcasts or leveraging video.
Align Content with Your Partners:
The more content you provide partners with, the more engagement opportunities there are for your partners to push out your solutions and their messaging. But “posting just to post” is not quality engagement. Show your best content and it will be an easy decision for your partners to want to share it as well.
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